Seresto Flea Collar Class Action Alleges Bayer, Elanco Misled Pet Owners About Deadly Product [UPDATE]

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Bayer and Elanco Animal Health face a proposed class action that alleges the companies have misled consumers about the safety of Seresto tick and flea collars, which have reportedly been linked to more than 2,500 pet deaths and tens of thousands of injuries and adverse event reports.

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The 88-page lawsuit alleges Bayer and Elanco, who purchased the product from Bayer in 2020, have “downplayed” reports of the serious side effects of the Seresto flea collar, even after such reports became public and the collars came under regulatory scrutiny, and have continued to falsely claim that the product is safe for pets. 

“At no point have Defendants disclosed this information to United States consumers,” the filing says, noting that the product’s label includes no warning that the Seresto collar may harm or kill pets, or that the product could cause any adverse side effects at all. 

The case states that the danger of the Seresto collar is so severe that it sparked a Congressional inquiry by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform’s Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, who after a 16-month investigation issued a June 2022 report recommending that the Seresto flea and tick collar be recalled due to the dangers it poses to pets and humans. 

According to the suit, the problem with the collars stems from a combination of the pesticides imidacloprid and flumethrin, which, together, “magnify their harmful effects.” Per the case, one retired U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) employee said the Seresto flea and tick collars “have the most incidents of any pesticide pet product she’s ever seen,” and the Congressional Subcommittee found that the product had “nearly three times the rate of total incidents, and nearly five times the rate of ‘Death’ or ‘Major’ incidents, as the second most dangerous flea and tick product.” 

The lawsuit says Canada, after reviewing incident and toxicology reports, banned the sale of the Seresto collars as they posed “too great a risk to animals and humans to be safe for use.” Other countries, similarly, have required “severe warnings” to be placed on the packaging of the collar, including the word “POISON” in large font on the front label, the suit adds. 

Despite Bayer and Elanco’s safety claims, Seresto collars have caused millions in damages for pet owners, both in what they overpaid for the dangerous product and in veterinarian and other medical expenses, the complaint alleges. 

According to the case, Seresto flea and tick collars accounted for over $300 million in revenue for Bayer in 2019 alone. Since 2012, Bayer and Elanco have sold more than 25 million Seresto collars in the United States, the suit reports. 

“Seresto pet collars are an enormous business segment, and consequently, Defendants have refused to make the product safer or warn consumers about the potential risks,” the suit reads, calling the defendants’ description of the collars as “veterinary medicine” a “misnomer.” 

The plaintiff, a Bedford, Indiana resident, says that after placing Seresto collars around the necks of his two dogs, they each developed rashes and experienced lethargy. One dog developed “a cough, a heart murmur, and congestive heart failure and needed to be euthanized,” while the other “developed multiple tumors,” the lawsuit states. The consumer claims that his surviving dog’s condition has improved somewhat since he stopped using the Seresto collar. 

All told, the plaintiff incurred more than $4,000 in out-of-pocket medical expenses in treating his dogs, the filing says. 

Per the suit, neither the plaintiff nor other pet owners would have bought the Seresto collar had Bayer and Elanco disclosed the serious safety risks of the product. 

The case looks to cover all persons in the United States who, during the fullest period allowed by law, bought a Seresto flea and tick collar for use on a pet and not for resale. 

Warning: The complaint below contains graphic images of pets’ injuries. 

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